Explosive embedment anchor projectile

ABSTRACT

An explosive embedment anchor for use in all types of ocean bottom sediments except consolidated rock. The anchor forms the projectile which is fitted to the gun barrel. The assembly is lowered to the ocean floor and a charge in the gun is detonated by contact therewith to drive the anchor into the sediment. The anchor is provided with a pair of hinged flukes having keying flaps on their upper edges and riser cables. Holding power is achieved by an upward pull on the riser cables causing the keying flaps to wedge against the wall of the crater formed by the anchor&#39;&#39;s entry and the flukes open to provide maximum pullout resistance.

United States Patent [19] Mayo [ 51 May8,1973

[54] EXPLOSIVE EMBEDMENT ANCHOR PROJECTILE [75] Inventor:

22 Filed: Aug. 6, 1970 21 Appl.No.: 61,567

Henry C. Mayo, Fairfax County, Va.

[52] US. Cl. ..114/206 A [51] Int. Cl. ..B63b 21/28 [58] Field 01 Search ..1 14/206 R, 206 A,

114/208 R, 208 A, 207, 209, 230; 52/155, l60164; 6l/53.68

3,291,092 12/1966 Halberg et al. ..114/206 A Primary Examiner-Milton Buchler Assistant Examiner-F. K. Yee

AttorneyHarry M. Saragovitz, Edward J. Kelly and Herbert Berl [57] ABSTRACT An explosive embedment anchor for use in all types of ocean bottom sediments except consolidated rock. The anchor forms the projectile which is fitted to the gun barrel. The assembly is lowered to the ocean floor and a charge in the gun is detonated by contact therewith to drive the anchor into the sediment. The anchor is provided with a pair of hinged flukes having keying flaps on their upper edges and riser cables. Holding power is achieved by an upward pull on the riser cables causing the keying flaps to wedge against the wall of the crater formed by the anchors entry and the flukes open to provide maximum pullout resistance.

5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PAIENTEUHAY' 81915 3,731,646

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M ATTORNEYS EXPLOSIVE EMBEDMENT ANCHOR PROJECTILE The invention described herein may be manufactured, used, and licensed by or for The Government for governmental purposes without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

Present explosive embedment anchors in use have not been satisfactory since they do not provide the capacity for holding in mud bottoms.

The present invention is designed to provide an anchor that will have holding power in both soft muddy and hard bottoms.

Briefly, the invention consists of a center member, a pair of flukes hinged at their lower ends to the center member, a keying flap hinged to the upper edge of each fluke and riser cables. The center member is adapted to fit the barrel of a gun. The assembly is lowered to the ocean bottom and a probe which, when touching the bottom, fires a charge in the gun to drive the anchor into the bottom. Then when an upward pull is exerted on the riser cables, the hinged flaps engage the wall of the crater made by the anchor and opens the flukes against the wall.

In softer bottoms, such as mud or sand, the pulling force also causes the keying flaps to pivot outward, but on additional pulling, the action of the soil pressure against the flaps causes the flukes to pivot into an open position. When fully open, the maximum fluke area is available to resist pullout and provide holding power.

It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide an explosive embedment anchor projectile for use in both hard and soft bottoms of oceans or like bodies of water.

It is another object to provide an anchor having a pair of hinged flukes that pivot outwardly when the anchor is pulled upward to engage in mud or sand.

A further object is to provide a hinged keying flap on the upper edge of each fluke to engage against the wall of a crater formed by entry of the anchor in the sediment and produce a wedging action for holding the anchor in place.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be fully apparent from the following description when taken in connection with the annexed drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of the anchor of this invention and shown assembled to a gun for driving it into sediment;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the anchor fully extended in holding position;

FIG. 3 is a detail view of one of the keying fins and illustrates its position while being driven into sediment;

FIG. 4 is a similar view illustrating the wedging action of the keying fin when an upward pull is exerted on the anchor, and,

FIG. 5 is a perspective detail on an enlarged scale of one of the keying fins.

Referring in detail to the drawing in which reference character 1 designates generally the anchor and gun assembly. The gun is indicated generally by 2 and the anchor generally by 3.

The gun 2 is a standard item and forms no part of this invention since any type of gun may be used where adaptable to drive the anchor into the sediment. The gun shown consists of a barrel 4, a piston 5 fitted in the muzzle end of barrel 4, a charge 6 in barrel 4 and an electric squib 7 for firing charge 6.

Anchor 3 forms the projectile which will be fired from gun 2, and comprises a central supporting member 8 having a socket 9 at its upper edge, best seen in FIG. 2. A main hinge 10 is provided at the lower portion of the supporting member 8 and the lower end of the supporting member 8 terminates in a spade 11. While a flat plate is illustrated as the central support of the anchor, a tube, not shown, could serve the same purpose and plate 8 is shown by way of example only. A pair of identical flukes 12 are hinged at hinge 10 at their bottom ends as shown. Each fluke forms a wide plate that is further connected to plate 8 by an additional linkage. Each additional linkage consists of upper and lower bars 13 and 14. Upper bars 13 are pivotally connected to plate 8 as at 15 while lower bars 14 are pivotally connected to flukes 12 as at 16. Bars 13 and 14 are pivotally connected at their free ends as at 17 and serves as a means to limit the opening of flukes 12 to ninety degrees with respect to the axis of plate 8.

A small keying fin 18 is hinged centrally as at 19 to the upper edge of each fluke 12, as shown. Stop means are provided to limit the rotation of each keying fin 18 and consists of three quadrant shaped members 20 fixed, one each, to the upper and lower sides of each fluke 12 adjacent its upper edge, and to one side of each keying fin and disposed adjacent its hinged end. Each quadrant is provided with a protuberance 21 at its outer end as shown best in FIG. 5. All quadrants are in alignment and are disposed centrally on the fluke and keying fin, so that they form sectors of a circle.

Means are provided to detonate the charge 6 in gun 2 and may consist of a probe 22 in electrical connection with squid 7 by a lead 23. Power may be supplied by suitable means such as a battery, not shown.

Riser cables 24, usually coiled on a plate 25 are attached to center plate 8 and provide means for raising the anchor 3.

The gun 2 may be held to the anchor 3 by shear means, such as rods, etc., not shown.

In use, the assembled gun and anchor is lowered into a body of water, such as an ocean, etc., by a cable, not shown. When the probe 22 touches the bottom B an electrical contact is made by a switch 26 attached to the underside of one of the flukes 12. Squib 7 then fires the charge 6 to cause piston 5 to drive anchor 3 into the sediment of the bottom B. After the anchor 3 is embedded in the sediment of the bottom, an upward pull on cables 24 will cause keying fins 18 to rotate downward to exert a wedging action upon the wall C of a crater formed by the anchors entry thereinto. Upon further upward pull, the flukes hinge outward to ninety degrees to their open position as seen in FIG. 2. Sediment filling in the crater C collect on flukes 12 to provide holding power for the anchor.

The wedging action of the keying flaps will serve to hold the anchor in a hard bottom and full extending of the flukes is not necessary.

It is apparent that an anchor of the explosive embedment type has been devised for holding in hard as well as soft bottoms. One such hard bottom is in coral wherein the anchor is held by the wedging action. In soft muddy bottoms, opening of the flukes provides sufficient holding power.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination with a gun, an embedment anchor adapted to be fired by said gun into hard and soft bottoms of a body of water and comprising, a central supporting member for releasable connection to said gun, riser cables attached to said supporting member, a pair of flukes foldably connected to said supporting member, collapsible linkage connecting each said fluke to said supporting member, a keying fin hinged, one each, to the free ends of said flukes, and stop means carried by said flukes and said keying fins for limiting rotational movement of said fins whereby during entry of said anchor into said bottom said fins will be rotated by engagement with the wall of a crater formed by said entry to effect a wedging action on said wall upon an upward pull on said riser cables, and wherein each said collapsible linkage comprises a first pair of spaced bars pivotally connected at one of their ends to the inner side of each said fluke and a second pair of spaced bars pivotally connected to the edges of said central supporting member, their other ends being pivotally joined, whereby said flukes are limited to open at an angle of 180 when embedded.

2. An anchor as set forth in claim 1 wherein each said fluke comprises a flat plate, each plate being hinged at its lower end to the lower portion of said supporting member and being arranged, one each, on each side thereof.

3 An anchor as set forth in claim 1 having contact firing means attached thereto and suspended below the anchor to fire the gun upon making contact with the sea bottom.

4. In combination with a gun, an embedment anchor adapted to be fired by said gun into hard and soft bottoms of a body of water and comprising, a central supporting member for releasable connection to said gun, riser cables attached to said supporting member, a pair of flukes foldably connected to said supporting member, collapsible linkage connecting each said fluke to said supporting member, a keying fin hinged one each to the free ends of said flukes, and stop means carried by said flukes and said keying fins for limiting rotational movement of said fins whereby during entry of said anchor into said bottom said fins will be rotated by engagement with the wall of a crater formed by said entry to effect a wedging action on said wall upon an upward pull on said riser cables, and wherein said stop means carried by said flukes and keying fins comprise a pair of identical quadrants fixed one each centrally on the top and bottom ends of each said fluke, a third identical quadrant fixed centrally on the top inner end of a said keying fin, and an integral out-wardly extending protuberance at the upper end of each said quadrant, all of said quadrants being in vertical alignment whereby said keying fin is limited in rotational movement between a folded to a wed ging position.

5. An anchor as set forth in claim 4 wherein each said keying fin comprises a flat plate, of smaller dimensions than a said fluke, hinged centrally on the outer edge of its respective fluke. 

1. In combination with a gun, an embedment anchor adapted to be fired by said gun into hard and soft bottoms of a body of water and comprising, a central supporting member for releasable connection to said gun, riser cables attached to said supporting membEr, a pair of flukes foldably connected to said supporting member, collapsible linkage connecting each said fluke to said supporting member, a keying fin hinged, one each, to the free ends of said flukes, and stop means carried by said flukes and said keying fins for limiting rotational movement of said fins whereby during entry of said anchor into said bottom said fins will be rotated by engagement with the wall of a crater formed by said entry to effect a wedging action on said wall upon an upward pull on said riser cables, and wherein each said collapsible linkage comprises a first pair of spaced bars pivotally connected at one of their ends to the inner side of each said fluke and a second pair of spaced bars pivotally connected to the edges of said central supporting member, their other ends being pivotally joined, whereby said flukes are limited to open at an angle of 180* when embedded.
 2. An anchor as set forth in claim 1 wherein each said fluke comprises a flat plate, each plate being hinged at its lower end to the lower portion of said supporting member and being arranged, one each, on each side thereof.
 3. An anchor as set forth in claim 1 having contact firing means attached thereto and suspended below the anchor to fire the gun upon making contact with the sea bottom.
 4. In combination with a gun, an embedment anchor adapted to be fired by said gun into hard and soft bottoms of a body of water and comprising, a central supporting member for releasable connection to said gun, riser cables attached to said supporting member, a pair of flukes foldably connected to said supporting member, collapsible linkage connecting each said fluke to said supporting member, a keying fin hinged one each to the free ends of said flukes, and stop means carried by said flukes and said keying fins for limiting rotational movement of said fins whereby during entry of said anchor into said bottom said fins will be rotated by engagement with the wall of a crater formed by said entry to effect a wedging action on said wall upon an upward pull on said riser cables, and wherein said stop means carried by said flukes and keying fins comprise a pair of identical quadrants fixed one each centrally on the top and bottom ends of each said fluke, a third identical quadrant fixed centrally on the top inner end of a said keying fin, and an integral out-wardly extending protuberance at the upper end of each said quadrant, all of said quadrants being in vertical alignment whereby said keying fin is limited in rotational movement between a folded to a wedging position.
 5. An anchor as set forth in claim 4 wherein each said keying fin comprises a flat plate, of smaller dimensions than a said fluke, hinged centrally on the outer edge of its respective fluke. 